End of the Year Student Feedback

This past year I taught 7th grade, wow-o-wow. Were we like that in 7th grade? Honestly though, I have to say I loved it. I had a great team that I was a part of and learned so much from them all. It was a challenging year, not only because I taught 7th graders math (which I am more than qualified to do), but also because I taught 7th graders World History…yes you can laugh now. But I had an amazing AP World History Teacher in high school (thanks Mr. Carver!), a great mentor at 7th grade WH, and a life-long-learning passion, so I was able to pull it together.

One of my favorite blogs to consult with over the year was I Want to Teach Forever by Tom Derosa. The end of the year Tom posted “student feedback questions”. Because my life was sooooooo crazy the last month of school (52+ job applications, 2500 miles driven, 8 job interviews, 1 PLACE exam, only 1 job offer), I didn’t get to give these questions to my students until the last couple days of school (after I was offered a job and accepted).

I wish I had given them to my students in early May, because many of their answers would have helped me out during my interviews. They are still great to reflect back on, to make changes in my teaching for this year and to use if I am ever in an interviewing situation again…I hope this doesn’t happen for a few years.

This is modified from one that Tom posted. Half of the questions were for the students to rate themselves (not included), the other half to give feedback on my teaching. I am going to share some of those answers with you. I have included positive and negative. Everything can be used for improvement.

If you found out your friend/family member was going to be in Ms. S’s class next year, what would you tell him/her?
…don’t be a jerk to Ms. S b/c she is pretty awesome
…she’s really nice but don’t piss her off
…she has her day
…she will push you to get better grades
…stay on task
…a little tiny bit strict about showing your work

What did Ms. S do well this year? What should she keep the same when planning for her classes next year?
…not giving too many assignments from book – boring!
…have a sense of humor
…when you do something wrong she lets us give it another try
…taught in fun ways
…learning easier steps to hard problems

What did Ms. S NOT do well this year? What should she change when planning her classes for next year?
…yelled a lot
…more group projects would have been more fun
…she should have told us to do all the problems
…when she was stressed she would take her anger out on us, but I know she was just trying to get through the year and help us out
…pushing me to turn in my homework
…she should have more games
…NADA
…nothing she was GREAT!

What 3 words would you use to describe Ms. S?
…funny, cool
…awesome, fun, nice
…organized teaching, not organized desk (more than 3 words, but true)
…mysterious, funny, joyful
…humorous, sensitive, awesome
…snazzy, smart, fantabulous
…fun, crazy, helpful
…laughable, smart, creative


What is one thing you will remember most about this class?
…your laugh and smile
…the fun
…always do you homework or life sucks
…having Ms. S tell me I did well
…she cared about the NCAA basketball tourney.
…always show your work
…when you move the decimal over two places it looks like a butt cheek
…how she makes me laugh

Anything else you would like to tell me?
...thank you 4 teaching me
…you are an awesome teacher and I will miss you
…you were wonderful
…I learned a lot, thanks for everything
…probably one of my favorite teachers (even though you were a little pissy sometimes)
…you will do amazing at your next job
…very nice, considerate teacher
…have fun
…keep going the way your going
…way to go!
…NOPE